British explorer Cecil John Rhodes’ grave which ZANU PF says has his bones, has nothing inside it apart from ashes, it has been reported.
“There is nothing in there apart from the man’s ashes as he was cremated,” senior members of the ex-Rhodesians group have said in an exclusive report seen by this reporter.
COMMENT:I heard a Julius Malema is up in arms against any statues or memorial structures that remind people of the bad colonial past in South Africa. Now the same agenda could potentially spill onto the Zimbabwean soil. Many with nothing to do could be motivated just not to be outdone. How patriotic! I am not saying Cecil John Rhodes or Charles Rudd or Moffat were heroes. They were not. Rhodes took advantage of our ancestry and did horrible stuff to them as they were displaced and robbed of their assets and property.
A century later, we look back and wonder why our ancestry was taken for a ride to that extent. That was wrong and should never be repeated. Now, as we stand on our own, on a path to barbarism and jungle life, under this grinding poverty, corruption and hopelessness, let us not get distracted with trivial issues. Now we read in English, aspire to be associated with the West. We dream to send our children to the best private schools with traces of great standards left by the colonial system. We live like the English. We drink tea and burp with style as we aspire to have etiquette. We have dress codes and certain decorous behavior. Oh how colonialism changed the terrain.
Even our President sounds British and he lives, breathes and dresses like a white person. He is even friends with many influential people who are the descendants of the colonialists the world over. Why? Because he thinks it is cool. Water now runs through the taps in many households, there is power that comes to the house. Even toilets that flush are in the house. Before Cecil John Rhodes, we were innocent natives. Some of us wore animal skins, were shoeless, innocent and shallow minded. We ate berries and grew crops and hunted. We walked hundreds of miles to see our own. There were no phones. Things that excited us then are even embarrassing to discuss today. Today we use planes, cars and buses. There were no roads. Today we use roads. Before Rhodes, even this message could be just a heap of crazy logarithm characters with nothing of significance.
People survived on good memory. A century later, we can read and write. Most live in, or aspire to be in towns and cities. The infrastructure is now polished. We put on Armani suits, we have Gucci, Ray Barn, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel, you name it. Technology, fashion, trinkets, comfort. We have shoes for weddings and shoes for winter, shoes for track and shoes for the rain. Even houses have become mansions with bedroom names and numbers. We change cars according to mood and occasions. We have come to appreciate the endless advantages of progressive comfort and good life…the list is endless. Cecil John Rhodes and his merchants unfairly colonized Zimbabwe through the Scramble for Africa. They introduced a draconian law system, robbed us of our resources and pushed us in the least admired lands and squashed us in there. We were on forced labor and treated as if we were aliens from another planet in our own homes. That was cruel.
Today, 35 years after independence, we are back to the same evil system that Cecil John Rhodes introduced to Zimbabwe. People live in fear of their own brothers and sisters, they are heavily taxed (toll gates and bribery), crime is high, people live in fear of being abducted. In this myriad of poverty and suffering, many now turn to the remnants of the colonial system to vent out their frustration. I wish many knew the real cause of the suffering for the people of Zimbabwe. Misplaced priorities. Bad governance, greed, selfishness, big headedness, corruption, a know-it-all attitude, arrogance, pride and confusion. Our government is run by ZANU PF. People at first loved the idea of majority rule and were even carried away by farm ownership. Living in farm houses once occupied by those mzungus. But what is land without proper planning and production? And what is independence without freedom, rule of law, jobs and good health care? People get easily distracted over nothing.
I look at the colonial system and hate the way our ancestry was treated. It took generations for people to recover. Once we recovered, we seem to be heading back to savagery. It’s common to read about people who had sex with chickens, goats or donkeys. Some eat other people through weird cannibalism. Some burn each other in houses. Violence is high. Others get abducted and are thrown back onto the streets as dead bodies. That’s just the way life is today. People have become selfish and it’s now survival of the fittest. And we are on our own in Zimbabwe as we can call the shots. Colonialism had a dark side yet it also had a silver lining. The economy boomed. People saw light as ignorance was swept away. Diseases like Malaria were soon contained. Many now can read and write and even acquire top degrees together with whatever specialization they want.
The world over, our people can now travel or live and work there. Back in the day, the economy was moving. Now it is on a standstill. By destroying the grave of Cecil John Rhodes, are we going to change the economy that is now heading south? What do we gain? Rhodes died. His skeletons will never change anything. Now that you know your rights, you have become a danger even to yourselves. Good thing. Now you can read and write and eat at a table and watch a TV or be on a plane. The effects of colonial rule. Of course the side effects were racism and social inequality. But we have since addressed that by sweat and blood and even lost lives. We have our independence. If we are this anti-colonialist, as we run the show, how many cities built after independence have English names? Why are we still having English curriculum? When things were moving, no one ever thought about some of these flash in the pan issues. So at this pace of trying to forget the colonial past does that mean every James, John and Robert should quickly find a Venda, Chewa, Shona or Ndebele name? As we get drunk in our small beer hall gardens after some great music under candle lights somewhere at an old farm, let us not get distracted with trivial issues my countrymen. I am not an apologist to colonial rule but some of our anti-colonial ideologies are exceeding reality and will never bring back the green and promising Zimbabwe of 1980. Colonial rule was bad. Fact. But desecrating the grave of Cecil John Rhodes to have some of its fallen concrete will not even help to fill up even one pot hole in Bulawayo or Harare. There are better things to do to address issues hovering above Zimbabwe. Just saying.